Skip to main content

Generation Next Expert Takes Message to MC


Dr. Mark Taylor
Sounds of laughter erupted every few minutes at Mississippi College as faculty and staff got up to speed about Generation Next.

This is the generation that "would rather text than talk,'' Dr. Mark Taylor told MC professors, administrators and others at a campus workshop Friday. They are the same people who would rather see a Podcast of a lecture instead of jotting down notes in a traditional classroom, he said.

Taylor is much in demand at schools and colleges around the United States and Canada. This 50-something Generation Next expert, consultant and educator tells all on this subject. From President Lee Royce to Vice President for Academic Affairs Ron Howard to department heads, deans and staffers, the MC leaders gained valuable insights from his lecture and chuckled at the same time.

Taylor is the learned, yet funny guy from Arkansas who's telling audiences across America what will happen when Generation Next students join the workforce. He's also offering his insights about what to expect out of these young men and women on a college campus.

Taylor, who holds a doctorate in counseling from the University of Arkansas, most recently was working as director of guidance services at Arkansas State University at Beebe. Dr. Taylor has been licensed as a psychotherapist in Arkansas since 1981.

He's definitely an expert on the subject of Generation Next. The 54-year-old dad has a 16-year-old daughter, he told his MC audience.

Taylor says he mentors young people in Arkansas and advises them to get doctorates. All they have to do, he says, with a smile, is "wait seven years and not mess up'' and they will find good jobs in the academic world. He predicts many Generation Next people who earn doctorates can succeed and become vice chancellors in a few years.

Speaking to dozens of Baby Boomers in the audience at MC, Taylor ventured a guess as to what will happen in the future. While the USA economy remains stuck in a recession with the unemployment rate hovering around 10 percent, he sees an end to the bad times. The sour economy has been hanging around for more than a year in the United States.

"This economy will turn around," he says. As a result, many Baby Boomers will retire and that will leave a large number of leadership positions to fill, says the Arkansas educator and author.

So, enter Generation Next. "These self-important youngsters will leap-frog" and fill many of these leadership slots in all 50 states, Taylor predicts.

Taylor is a prolific writer who tackles the many challenges to those who must teach the Generation Next crowd of young people. He's written articles on the topic such as "Generation Next Goes to Work."

Taylor fielded questions from the audience Friday at the President's Board Room at the B.C. Rogers Student Center. He also delivered a lecture on Generation Next Thursday evening at the Jean Williams Recital Hall on the Clinton campus.